Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Polly is too afraid to walk past our big dogs when they're laying down asleep. If I'm sitting in our recliner one of them always sprawls across the little area between the chair and our couch, effectively blocking the path. None shall pass! Polly then goes into covert/coward mode and crawls under/around/over other furniture so she can get up on my lap.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Thursday, January 13, 2011

On our drive home from school today Naomi told me she had a PB&J for lunch instead of a hot lunch. I'm guessing since this is the first time she's done that is why she felt compelled to share it with me.

SIDE NOTE: These kids get to choose between the hot lunch, sandwich and chips or the salad bar. In my day (man I'm getting old) in elementary school you either ate the hot lunch or you didn't eat. Unless of course you brought from home. BUT oddly enough that has nothing to do with this story.

I asked her if it was good and she said yes. Then she says, "I got ketchup but I didn't have anything to dip it in. So I finished my sandwich and then I dipped my Cheetos in my ketchup...and it...was...AWESOME!!!"

Saturday, January 08, 2011

Ok I'm gonna do a little "woe is me" whining. So yesterday I took Libby (our dog with skin issues and food allergies) to the dog wash because she reeked. Gave her a nice bath (washed her twice, once with regular shampoo and once with medicated) and dried her til she was nice and fluffy. Ahhh love that clean dog smell!

Well, Libby is taking steroids for her itching. They make her incredibly thirsty so she drinks ALOT. How much? Night before last I had to let her out four times during the night to pee. Last night she woke me up at 2:00 a.m. with her very sad sounding, yet persistent whimpering and I let her out. Went back to sleep and heard nothing else the rest of the night. Got up at 8:30 and thought to myself, "Well that's nice. Only had to take her out once last night. Can't believe she held it that long."

Ummm...then I walked back in my room and was hit by the smell of...anyone wanna guess? No? Ok ya it was pee. How I did not smell it when I woke up I have no idea. Actually, it's probably because she did it many hours before and I had gotten used to it. Eww.

I start looking around for a lake of pee in the carpet because a 50 pound dog whose been drinking like she has is gonna leave you a lake. Nothing...nada...zip. No such lake was to be found. Then I noticed that rug she sleeps on seemed a little, shall we say, tinted? A closer inspection of the rug as well as the carpet underneath and a touch with my big toe confirmed it. Eww.

Oh but wait, there's more! The pièce de résistance...she slept on her wet rug. Eww.

Fortunately we have a carpet cleaner for just such an occasion. Here's where the whining comes in...we are out of carpet cleaner. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS??? I now have to make a trip to Costco...ON A WEEKEND!!! Something I go to great lengths to avoid, especially with a very precocious 6-year-old in tow.

So I now have carpet and a dog to clean...again. Add in some guilt for not having let her out in time and her feeling like she had to sleep on a wet rug (I wonder if she was trying to hide it? This is a dog who has not had an accident in the house in about 10 years. Doggie guilt, very sad.) and this weekend is not starting out very peachy.

UPDATE: Henry has informed me he bought carpet cleaner and it's in his car. Squeeeee!!!

Monday, December 06, 2010

Saturday, December 04, 2010

"The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born." ~Pearl S. Buck

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Monday, October 18, 2010

My Grandad (my Mom's dad) passed away on Sunday. He had been battling Alzheimer's for a number of years. He is the last of my grandparents to pass away. I count myself very fortunate to have known all my grandparents and to have had them all involved in our lives. I'm grateful my daughter got to know my Grandad and Grandma.

I wasn't what you'd call close to my Grandad but he definitely left an impression on me. When I was young I have to admit, I was scared of him. I could never figure out why either. He had a somewhat gruff voice but was never mean or unkind. I recall when one of my cousins was just a toddler I watched her walk right up to my Grandad and start babbling away at him. My jaw just dropped. I don't recall what I thought was going to happen, but he just said a few kind words to her and smiled and she went on her way.

As I got older I came to realize what I perceived as a slightly scary grandad was just a man of very few words. Think John Wayne in "The Quiet Man" and you've almost got it. The man had FIVE daughters and one bathroom! It's a miracle he didnt decide to give up on talking altogether He didn't say a lot but when he did you listened. What he had to say was always to the point and when a appropriate, humorous.

He hated squirrels. Why? My grandparents had walnut trees in their yard. Those squirrels would pick the walnuts, eat what was in the middle and throw what was left down to the ground where it would litter the driveway, and worse their cars. Pesky beasts.

After the Alzheimer's started to take ahold of his mind, his underlying ornery and cantankerous side I suspected he had all these years, would come through once in awhile. Ah ha! I knew he could be grumpy! I didn't like it. That wasn't my Grandad. It was heart-breaking for me to see and hear about. I can only imagine how his daughters felt. Although who's to say it wasn't that stubbornness that allowed him to carry on as long as he did.

I take great comfort in knowing that his passing was a painless one, with him surrounded by his daughters. I look forward to seeing him, my Grandma (who passed away 3 years ago) and my other grandparents again in a world where disease and death are no more. (Rev. 21:3,4; John 5:28, 29)

Here's what I remember most about him:

He liked gardening, golfing and fishing.

He was a voracious reader, making regular trips to the public library and checking out stacks of novels. He seemed to prefer westerns.

He loved watching football, basketball, golf and just about any other sport on TV. He converted an enclosed porch on the back of my grandparents house into his "room." He would spend his days at home here reading and watching TV.